The fire in the pit crackled and spit sparks while casting evil shadows all around. They danced around the cabin as roofing fell from hits upstairs. The shaking walls were built of uneven material hand milled by an amateur and no match for space junk. The windows shattered into exploding broken glass impacting the floor like shurikens. The first asteroids impacted into the nearby hills, shaking the place like it was a maraca.

Snow still fell outdoors as a front door creaked shut. A figure was trapped underneath a partially collapsed ceiling struggling for breath. A faint sound of classical music emitting from somewhere as Bessie started hacking.

“Chop, chop, chop” went her hatchet cutting into a wooden beam trapping her underneath.

The first square spruce beam was full of knots and bends that made even the sharpest of blades dull quick.

“C’mon you bastard” she said, attacking the object like a trapped animal.

Only a thin thread of wood remained when an eruption of deafening gunshots directly outside. Bessie froze her momentarily in place. She heard the creaking of boards as someone climbed the basement steps. She strained grunting to reach for her gun but it had fallen underneath some ruble and wouldn’t be pulled out at this angle. The hairs on her neck stood up straight as the main entrance to the log cabin creaked open.

“Bobby i’m heading to safety don’t friendly fire me,” a whiny voice called from the other side.

She was surrounded and stuck.

“BOOM!”

A soldier tumbled through the door as a meteor blew up the woodshed behind him. Another soldier screamed in pain being thrown a considerable distance and leaving the smell of burnt hair behind him. The four remaining in the retreat towards the log cabin blasting randomly into the dark just in case Jed decided to do anything funny. If he even still was alive.

“Target neutralized were heading right into your line of fire headquarters over,” a soldier cried, jumping over his smoldering comrade.

“Leave him,” another scolded, his hesitating teammate who caved to his nerves.

“Boom!” a nearby growth of trees was blown to smithereens.

Another section of the log cabin collapsed blocking the main entrance right when the troops had almost entered. One was crushed underneath and started thrashing. Another guy pulled him out, still alive but dazed, concussed, and burnt out.

“We gotta use the basement pull entrance around the back,” said one darting away through an area of little weather underneath an eave.

Bessie struggled to breath and reach her rifle with a soldier on top of her strangling her neck. Her hatched was also out of reach wedged into the neck of the guy who had tumbled through the front door. He gargled, spitting blood as he convulsed in the corner. His comrade stopped his choking momentarily to see his friend dying. He turned spit in her face, and got real serious about ending her existence as quickly as possible. She began to thrash about as his grip intensified.

“Bye bye grrrrr,” hissed the soldier, trembling on account of adrenaline overdrive while he slowly squeezed out another human's life.

With her mostly limp he removed one hand off her neck, and reached for his pistol. The basement door swung shut as the cabin seemed to roll like it was out at sea. Cans and vegetables rolled from side to side due to the storm. Bessies lights were going out with the fire that had become medium temperature coals, but the open roof exposed the incoming fireworks. She spit right back into the attacker's face.

“Bang!”

He blindly shot the wall above her head. She kicked him in the crotch and he shot again.

“Uggh,”.

She grabbed the extended barrel of her big iron revolver and spun it round to her hand.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Bang, Bang!”

The dude fell off her dead leaving a red plaster of brain matter imprinted behind him. Bessie’s other shot had blasted away the remaining wood she hadn’t yet chopped. She threw off two pieces of heavy timber and climbed to her feet. She was freed, but at the cost of ears screaming and ringing. She wiped a face that was coated with gunpowder with an ealy coated arm. Outside the explosions continued now much more muffled on account of the damage. She limped to retrieve her hatchet while her victims gargling reached heart attack levels on approach.

“Bang!’

She entered the basement gripping the railing. The building rattled threatening to collapse whatever hadn't fallen. One of the steps broke, throwing her down thudding onto the hardened cement.

The basement was nothing but smelly darkness. Bessie lay gripping her gun while her head spun. She couldn’t hear, or see any enemies in her condition. The pain overwhelmed her senses, but there was a good chance somebody was down here. The time to use her adrenaline reserves was coming to an end. Her recovery was going to be a process she thought while dissociating into a brain fog and drifting off.

“Thud, thud, thud,!”

She winced as something attacked a metal door exit at the fire end. A tiny amount of light entered from a torch on the other side.

“Let us in before we perish out here cmon what the fuck man,” screamed a man beating on the other end like his life depended on it.

“Let us in at once Bobby before you have to live with killing your friends,” cried another.

Jed crawled through the burnt smoldering crater left from the impact of a chunk of moon rock. Another soldier hadn’t been so fortunate. His charred boots and feet were the only thing that remained in the blast zone. He skirted the heat around the edge and peaked out the other side cradling his rifle. The cabin in front of him was half collapsed and on fire.

“We are so screwed,” a voice yelled somewhere nearby, while the valley boomed with a torrential onslaught.

The hairs on the back of Jed’s neck stood straight up as he heard dirt shuffling behind him. He spun around to see two skeleton hands reaching from the soil. The white roof of a skull was slowly exposed. The dug up sand was thrown in his direction as a smile was revealed and the edges field tested armor. Jed sprinted into the open as the reanimated corpse exploding into a cackling fit louder than anything else around.

“Thud..Thud…Smack,”

The basement door dented as the troops attacked it with a stick. The improvised battering ram splintered apart to nothing.

“Clear out i’m gonna cut it,” said a soldier priming his crystal cutting sword.

It started slowly being driven through the metal. He started slowly cutting upwards like a can opener. Another troop touched the weapon's extended handle providing stability.

“This is going to take at least 15 minutes, we're dead,” whined an onlooker.

“Well then go run into the forest and take your chances,” said the fourth crouched near the two at work holding a light.

Jed watched from behind the corner of the building. He had tried to crawl through a crack but the fire pushed him back. If Bessie was in the basement she was going to have to get out before suffocating. He crept forward around the other side. If she was still alive down there the remaining four soldiers had her trapped. He peeked around to the other side not realizing more bodies were rising just behind him. He had to think of a good plan fast.

The soldiers slowly cutting the door briefly paused. The sword was removed, then rotated 90 degrees. They struggled as one hammered the end to reenter from a new angle. One of two sides down, now the top of the entrance was being cut. The explosions hitting the forest had reached a deafening encore.

More and more of the many lights from outside were starting to force into the basement. Bessie coughed as she came to her senses. The smoke wafted down the stairs from above while the hot blade sawed away. She spun her revolver around and tossed it to the side empty. She used the but of her rifle as a stand to lean on climbing back to her feet. The cement hadn’t been smoothed and thus was spiked. She crouched behind an overturned shelving unit covered in dust, and a vintage push reel lawn mower. The gun was propped on a box aiming towards one avenue of danger.

“C’mon on in,” she muttered, making sure the round was fully chambered.

“I know he locked the tunnel, a basement above a burning building ain’t no use,” moaned the pacing soldier, pushing his long hair back underneath his helmet.

“Shut up,” yelled another.

They all turned to the sound of something winding up, and four collective jaws dropped. Their heavily armored friend who had been shot in the head was slowly approaching while his gun spun. They looked on in complete confusion until his face came into view. The first soldier ran away followed by a second. One of the guys holding the sword was left behind as the third sprinted away yelling.

“Bzzzzz”

The guy left out in the open was mowed down by the heavily armored cadaver.

“Hahaha,” it laughed.

Nancy joined in the cackling in the background. The undead chants intensified as another dead soldier rose from the ashes. Jed ran away from the building in front of the three who took potshots at him. They quickly gave up the idea and decided on concentrating on running in panic after him. One of the three dropped their gun behind. Jed jumped the edge of a massive crater and continue running.